I honestly have no idea what is happening. Jake met his love interest!
Chapter 9:
Jake discovers that there are seventeen lawsuits filed against the college for the incident where there was a baffling brawl on campus centered around Jake and his far-right beliefs. The school president, Pelletier, also informs him that lawsuits will be filed against Jake personally too.
Again, Jake insists he did nothing wrong. He’s a peaceable man, remember!
“We’re going to settle the lawsuits,” Pelletier went on after a moment. “The college’s lawyers assure me that this will cost less in the long run than fighting them.” His lip curled in an expression of distaste. “Besides, to be honest, I don’t have the stomach to defend the actions of a person like you, Mr. Rivers.”
I have to take Jake’s side here because there are no other options in this insane story where many members of campus just started chasing him around screaming that he was a nazi.
Pelletier looked like he wanted to spit. “You come in here with your far-right, nationalist, patriarchal, sexist, bigoted, supremacist leanings and make our entire student body and faculty extremely uncomfortable.”
“Now hold on just a minute!” Jake couldn’t hold in his anger, even though he suspected the college president was trying to goad him into losing control. “You can’t be saying that I’m the only student enrolled here who’s not some whiny little snowflake!”
I love that Jake is not denying having all of those views. The important thing is that he’s not a whiny little snowflake. He also protests that free speech should be for everyone, and while I agree that no matter what Jake’s views are he should not be attacked on campus (I’m trying to take this story seriously for a minute), the entire campus has a right to disagree with his views. Here’s a great example. My grandmother once told me that a woman shouldn’t be president because “how would she send her son to war” to which I replied, “That’s ridiculous. Men have to send their sons to war too?” I didn’t get the entire nursing home to start chasing after her and calling her a Nazi, but I asserted and defended my views and finally just ended the conversation because it was exhausting.
What’s most baffling, though, is that it sounds like Jake hasn’t spoken up about anything while on campus. So he is being oppressed because he appears so far-right that people can identify him on sight, and now he’s being discriminated against. Is this book actually being written to show how any of us could be othered and persecuted for it? To show the absurdity of persecuting someone for these reasons?
“You were heard to cast doubt on the validity of Keynesian economics.”
“I’m taking an econ class. We’re supposed to discuss things like that.”
“You told another student that in your opinion, all lives matter.”
Nevermind.
Pelletier tries to convince Jake to drop out of school, but Jake refuses.
“Careful,” Jake said. “That’s a Biblical reference. Remember what Pilate said when the Jews asked him what to do about Jesus? You wouldn’t want anybody to accuse you of being a Christian. That’s a dirty word these days, isn’t it?”
Jesus, save us all.
“What about those other four guys?”
“What four . . . guys? What are you talking about?”
“The fight in the plaza.”
“When you attacked that young couple and then fought with that group of peaceful bystanders?”
Peaceful bystanders? A bunch of hooded goons with chains and pipes?
Clearly, though, Pelletier was talking about what had happened earlier in the evening, not the clash when Jake was on his way back to Olmsted Hall from Frank McRainey’s office. And he seemed genuinely puzzled, as well.
There have been so many fights and we’re only on chapter 9 that no one in the book can even keep track of who was attacked when. Is this a plot? What is the plot of this book? Fuck if I know!